Worksheets and No Prep Teaching Resources Black History and Blacks in U.S. History

Josiah Henson

---

Josiah Henson
Reading Level

	edHelper's suggested reading level:	grades 6 to 7
	Flesch-Kincaid grade level:	7.17

Vocabulary

	challenging words:		determined, best, schooling, refused, endure, tavern, market, death, betray, rail, based, gamble, confidence, financial, entire, attend
	content words:		Josiah Henson, Charles County, Sunday Josiah, Bryce Litton, Methodist Church, Then Josiah, Ohio River, Lake Erie, Abolitionist Movement, United States

---

Print Josiah Henson

Print Josiah Henson  (font options, pick words for additional puzzles, and more)

Quickly Print - PDF format

	Quickly Print: PDF (2 columns per page)
	Quickly Print: PDF (full page)

Quickly Print - HTML format

Quickly Print: HTML

Proofreading Activity

Print a proofreading activity

---

Feedback on Josiah Henson

Leave your feedback on Josiah Henson  (use this link if you found an error in the story)

---

Josiah Henson By Mary L. Bushong

---

¹     Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a slave? Nothing would really belong to you, and you would have no choice about what you wanted to do. Many slaves ran away to reach freedom. The greatest of those helped others to achieve their dreams. One such man was Josiah Henson.
 
²     Josiah Henson was born on June 15, 1789, in Charles County, Maryland. His earliest memories were of carrying buckets of water to the men who worked in the fields. As he grew, he learned to lead the plow horse and then look after his master's riding horse. Finally when he was big enough, he began working in the fields. At night he slept on a dirt floor in a crowded cabin, a pile of rags and straw for a bed.
 
³     While still a young child, his father was brutally beaten and eventually sold to a Southern plantation. He never saw his father again. Three years later, their master died, and the remaining family was sold. The entire family was sold off to different people. His mother pleaded with her new owner to buy her youngest child, Josiah, but he refused to listen.
 
⁴     Josiah Henson grew into a tall, strong man with an unusually bright mind. He gained his master's confidence and became the overseer of the plantation. Under his direction, the farm produced more and higher quality produce than it ever had before, and the slaves had better care.
 
⁵     Eventually, he was given the job of "market man," which indicated the greatest possible trust a master could have in a slave. Josiah was in charge of taking the produce to the cities. He valued the trust placed in him and was determined not to betray it.
 
⁶     As Josiah worked at the markets he heard the speech of those who were more educated and refined. He determined that he wanted to be more like those men.
 
⁷     One Sunday Josiah was given permission to attend a religious meeting. The words he heard there transformed his heart. For the rest of his life he would look back to it as "an awakening to a new life." He wanted nothing more than to tell others about what he had found.
 
⁸     One night Josiah accompanied his master when he went to the tavern to gamble. Riley drank too much and got into a fight with Bryce Litton. Josiah rescued his master, but Litton was determined to get revenge. He waited with several slaves who held Josiah while he beat him with a fence rail. Josiah's shoulder blades were shattered. Though he eventually healed, he could no longer raise his arms above his head.
 
⁹     Finally, Josiah was able to resume his old job. At the market he met free blacks whose masters allowed them to earn money to buy their freedom. It was at that point that he determined one day to buy his own freedom.

Paragraphs 10 to 16:
For the complete story with questions: click here for printable

---

Weekly Reading Books

Create Weekly Reading Books Prepare for an entire week at once!

---

Black History and Blacks in U.S. History

Black History and Blacks in U.S. History

---

United States

United States

American Government         Black History and Blacks in U.S. History         Children in History         Government Careers         Hispanic Heritage         How Can I Help?

Immigration         National Parks and Monuments         Native Americans         Presidents of the United States         Women's History

---

United States History

A Nation Divided (1840-1861)         A New Nation (1776-1830)         After the Civil War (1865-1870)         American Revolution         Cold War (1947-1991)         Colonial America (1492-1776)         Lewis and Clark (1804-1806)         Pearl Harbor         Spanish American War (1898)         The 1890's         The 1900's         The 1910's         The 1920's         The 1930's

The 1940's         The 1950's         The 1960's         The 1970's         The 1980's         The 1990's         The 2000's         The Civil War (1861-1865)         The Great Depression (1929-1945)         The United States Grows (1865-1900)         The War of 1812         Wild, Wild West         World War I (1914-1918)         World War II

---

50 States

Fifty States Theme Unit

---

Document Based Activities

Document Based Activities

---

More Activities, Lesson Plans, and Worksheets

Back to School Graphic Organizers Alphabet Worksheets Sight Words Math Worksheets Mazes 50 States Education Teaching Monthly Themes January February March April May June July August September October November December

Fractions Place Value Time and Calendar Money Earth Day Solar System Analogies Nouns Following Directions Listening Capitalization Cursive Writing Patterns and Sequencing Dinosaurs All About Me Kindergarten First Grade Second Grade Third Grade Fourth Grade Fifth Grade Sixth Grade

Multiplication Division Main Idea Cause and Effect Measurement Decimals Rounding Order of Operations Verbs Community Helpers Adjectives Plants Grammar Addition and Subtraction Contractions Bulletin Board Ideas Word Searches Crossword Puzzles Printable Puzzles Reading Comprehension Reading Skills English Language Arts

Copyright © 2018 edHelper